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Candrakírti

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions | 1997 | | Copyright

Candrakírti (Tib., Zla-ba-grags-pa; Chin., Yüehcheng; Jap., Gesshō). A distinguished Buddhist teacher of the Mādhyamaka school who flourished in the 7th cent. CE. Candrakīrti championed the Prāsaṅgika form of the Mādhyamaka doctrine in his commentaries on the work of Nāgārjuna, the founder of the school, and Āryadeva, his disciple. According to this, the method of the Mādhyamaka is to reduce to absurdity the position of the opponent through a dialectical process which reveals the internal contradictions of his argument. The alternative interpretation of Mādhyamaka, that of the Svātantrika-Mādhyamaka sub-school led by Bhāvaviveka, was that the Mādhyamaka should seek to establish a positive thesis of its own, and that a purely negative dialectic was inadequate.

The contribution of Candrakīrti to an understanding of the terse aphorisms of Nāgārjuna, most notably through his ‘Clear Words’ (Prasannapadā) commentary cannot be overestimated. Also of great importance is his own composition, An Introduction to the Mādhyamaka System (Mādhyamaka-Āvatāra).

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JOHN BOWKER. "Candrakírti." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN BOWKER. "Candrakírti." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Candrakrti.html

JOHN BOWKER. "Candrakírti." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Candrakrti.html

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Candrakīrti

A Dictionary of Buddhism | 2004 | | Copyright

Candrakīrti. (c.7th c. ce) A major Madhyamaka philosopher and key proponent of the reductio ad absurdum (prasaṅga) method of argumentation. This method aims to reduce to absurdity the position of the opponent through a dialectical process that reveals the internal contradictions of his argument. The alternative interpretation of Madhyamaka, that of the Svātantrika-Madhyamaka subschool led by Bhāvaviveka, was that the Madhyamaka should seek to establish a positive thesis of its own and that a purely negative dialectic was inadequate. Candrakīrti was the author of a number of important works, including the Prasannapadā, a commentary on Nāgārjuna's Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā, which survives in Sanskrit and Tibetan, and the Madhyamakāvatāra, an outline of the Bodhisattva Path from the Madhyamaka viewpoint. While his works were much studied in Tibet, especially by the Geluk school, he seems to have been unknown to the Chinese.

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DAMIEN KEOWN. "Candrakīrti." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

DAMIEN KEOWN. "Candrakīrti." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-Candrakrti.html

DAMIEN KEOWN. "Candrakīrti." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-Candrakrti.html

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